Vermont Rapid Prototyping

The moment I saw the Snelson Tower at one of the Smithsonian museums in Washington, DC, I was fascinated. His tower uses the principle of “tensegrity" to suspend aluminum poles in the air. A friend and I managed to create a similar structure, although Snelson’s work...

I created these stamp boxes out of lacewood when I needed a stamp box. The top attaches to the rest of the box with a magnetic closure

I created a small magnetic levitation demonstration, which uses one magnet (hidden inside the structure) to levitate the smaller magnet. The effect works only because of the graphite which surrounds the smaller magnet. Interesting, but not dramatic enough to...

I’ve played guitars since I was a teenager. I discovered the “headless" Steinberger guitars, and was fascinated by them because of their stability and because they are so easy to transport. I bought a few of them, and then wanted to design and build my own. My main...

I visited the Hood Museum at Dartmouth and saw the amazing machines built by Arthur Ganson. His work inspired me to design and build a variation on his Ball Chain Sculpture. While his creation is entirely made of metal, mine uses a lot of wood and slate. The idea is...

While visiting a small local boat show with my aunt and uncle, I saw a canoe and a sail boat that contained car batteries. When I asked why they had car batteries, I was told “to make sure that they do not blow away”. The skin-on-frame construction techniques used...

My nearly-new house was mis-designed so that the master bathroom had no windows that would open.  In the summer, this makes it difficult for towels to dry, so I added a heated towel rack.  When my girlfriend moved in, and chose to use two towels at one time, I needed...

LED Lighting Projects I’ve been playing with LED lighting in the past six months, and finally bit the bullet, pulled the trigger, and purchased enough LEDs, micro-controllers, motor controllers, and power supplies to replace the under-cabinet lighting in my kitchen...

The Gamma configuration drives the displacer directly from a crank shaft.  Other than that, this engine is similar to the other two engines we’ve built (same basic structure, same displacer cylinder, same tower concepts, same fly wheels, same power pistons, same...

This is the first engine I build all my myself. It is based on the first engine we built, but with a new “tower” assembly. This tower is lighter, stronger, and serves as a kind of heat sink, to help cool the top of the engine. The fan blades are made out of “foam...

I’ve owned African Grey parrots for about 10 years. The first one I purchased as a chick, and I named her Karma. The second one I purchased as an adult, and he came with the slave name of Tiger Boy, or simply Tiger. Greys are intelligent and social animals, and they...

Magnetic Spin Toys I became interested in Magnetic Spin Toys after hearing Chris Danforth from the University of Vermont talk about chaotic systems.  His discussion and demonstration of the unpredictability of a double pendulum made me wonder what it would be like to...